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The year 2005 was a big milestone for Ethiopian
politics, most analysts agree.
For the very first time in history, there were open
political debates between the governing party and
its opposition counterparts, there were peaceful
public rallies with millions of participants staged
in Addis Abeba and major regional cities (both for
and against the governing party), and the public
media gave considerable coverage to opposition
political parties.
For the first time, a strong contending party, the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), appeared to
challenge the governing party. Beyond all this,
though, for the first time, voters in Ethiopia
showed the world that they understood that democracy
was not something to import or buy from other
countries but, rather, an internal process. Contrary
to these developments, however, the year also
changed the Ethiopian political platform for the
worse.
The Ethiopian state has grown bigger since 2005, in
response to the public disappointment reflected
after the election results were announced. The
opposition camp has self-destructed for its lack of
a long-term vision, internal democracy, and
thoughtful deliberation, aside conflicts of
factional interests.
The public has lost confidence in the various
institutions of the state and the overall political
structure of the country. Neither the governing
party nor the opposition has been able to
preferentially prioritise public interests over
political ideologies.
Sadly, hundreds died and considerable economic
destruction was caused by the postelection unrest of
2005. What happened after that was well documented
in the sensational and all too personal views
publicised through the books of many individuals who
were actors during the events on different levels.
Though the ramifications of the 2005 elections are
still with Ethiopians, including some problems that
seemingly transcend temporal boundaries, one result
seems to be gaining momentum with each passing day:
the enlargement and expansion of the Ethiopian
state.
Despite the fact that the two phases of
decentralisation have taken the government somewhat
closer to the people, its size is increasingly
marred with colossal inefficiencies, inexperienced
bureaucracy, significant operational malpractice, an
immeasurable lack of transparency, and contagious
systemic corruption.
“While the government is made to serve the people,
here we are serving a government,” some say, making
fun of the fact that the Ethiopian state is so
disproportionately large compared to the private
sector. The highly hierarchical structure of the
government has caused a disconnection between
responsibility and accountability, where the
voiceless poor are left with no option but to live
in a quandary of helplessness.
The sheer size of the state would have been no
problem if it were not coupled with inexperienced
bureaucracy and a gap between planning and
implementation capacities. Added up, these have all
created an inefficient system where the quality of
the provision of services is suboptimal and
accountability is almost nonexistent.
Since the pivotal election of 2005, the recurrent
budget of the Ethiopian government has been
increasing constantly. Meanwhile, the parliamentary
debates on the federal government’s budget have been
limited to the portion allocated to the Ethiopian
Defence Forces and other institutions. There has
been no deliberation on the growing size of the
government, implied in the recurrent budget
allocated for new institutions and prevailing ones.
The number of rural weredas has been rising, to the
extent that the total number of weredas existing in
the country at any given time cannot accurately be
recounted by most people. With the constant
formation and restructuring of institutions, the
government has remained the biggest employer.
In
every dimension of life in this poor land, the
government prevails as an overpowering Godzilla in
control.
The poor knowledge-sharing system in the government
has left the bureaucracy too inexperienced.
Political loyalty being taken as the most important
criteria, merit has been cast aside.
In
addition to the extremely hierarchical
decision-making structure of the government, public
disenfranchisement is growing each day. Both are,
however, at odds with the founding principles of
democratic developmental states, which the incumbent
repeatedly says it is building.
What has made things more complicated is the low
participation that the public has in the planning
and implementation of local development activities.
No
unit of government is accountable to ensure
community participation in the local government
tiers. With all the holes in the accountability
structure of local governments, inefficiency is
rampant. Thus, there is always a disconnection
between planned activities and achievements, which
is mostly attributed to insufficient implementation
capacity.
Why a government unit would plan beyond its means is
still the million dollar question. It seems that
tension still remains between the quota based
socialist planning mentality of pre-1991 Ethiopia
and the capitalist based mentality of planning
within one’s means adopted after 1991.
Mindful of the fact that a responsible government is
key to economic development, no one would question
its importance. Leaving the century old big
government versus small government debate aside, one
would expect a responsible government to strive to
stay efficient, give priority to merit, balance
revenues against public spending, try to do more
tasks with less people, and, as a hallmark, flatten
its decision-making structure to get closer to the
people.
Is
the state in Ethiopia responsible enough to do all
this after the much praised reforms, such as the
introduction of business process reengineering (BPR)?
Life under big government is distressing as there
are more bureaucrats than entrepreneurs. Both birth
and death are put under the will of a bureaucrat.
Corruption is pervasive while inefficiency is a
culture.
And so it has become in this poor land since 2005.
Ironically, though, even the darlings of government
do not pray for a “Big Brother.” |
